


Learning Each Other

by Night Vale Community Radio Intern Tien (Tien)



Series: Becoming One with Night Vale [2]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-28 14:26:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/992945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tien/pseuds/Night%20Vale%20Community%20Radio%20Intern%20Tien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is much that is strange about Night Vale.<br/>Cecil is certainly one that is quite peculiar.<br/>Though, from the reporter's point of view, the mysterious, handsome scientist must also hold some secrets.</p><p>This fic is officially shelved. I will not be working on it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning Each Other

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first chunk of chapters in this crazy story.  
> Some focus on how Cecil and Carlos managed to grow a relationship between town disasters and social mishaps.

A hand met temples where fingers massaged away a pounding headache. “This is impossible,” said a man in a lab coat as he stared at some papers and figures. “These results should be impossible…” he trailed off.

Another person also in a lab coat walked over, “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s just you Camille. It’s these latest results from the tests on the radio tower.”

He handed her the printouts, some stained with ink or coffee rings. She took the readings and gasped, “C-Carlos…we should all be dead if this is correct!”

Carlos nodded and took the papers back. “I want you to take a look at our equipment, make sure nothing is broken or was tampered with. With radiation levels as high as these…you’re right, we’d been dead weeks ago.” He had to be sure no tampering or faulty equipment was to blame. Though, he was sure that it was a secure reading. His devices had all been performing perfectly, even the seismographs that reported a deadly earthquake every Tuesday. If everything was running perfectly then it begged the question, ‘Are we all slowly dying from radiation poisoning, or are more of my instruments giving false readings with no warning?’

Camille nodded and quickly ran from the lab. Carlos on the other hand turned back to the computer displays dumbfounded. He reached over and pressed a small knob on a radio by his side. Background noise would be much appreciated.

The radio hissed as it came alive, literally, but it was trapped underneath a perforated plastic beaker and couldn’t escape. Carlos’s ears were immediately filled with a man’s voice so calm and smooth it could probably quell the very earthquakes that frequented the area on Tuesdays. 

Except… not today.

Today he was greeted with the Voice of Night Vale screeching into the microphone. A few other voices joined in the howling.

“Mountains? More like nothings!” They chanted over and over again.

“Oh for the love of…” He scooted his chair back and stood up. With a sideways glance at his work he grabbed his car keys and left. It’s not like it was going anywhere anytime soon. Carlos decided he could use some fresh air. He practically ran straight into Camille as she was returning.

“Carlos! Sir, wait the radiation levels!”

Well…as fresh as air could get in Night Vale. “Oh, I’m sorry, how was the equipment?”

“Functioning perfectly Sir,” she responded reaching for protective gear. Her face fell into panic when she saw Carlos proceeding to leave the lab. “Wait! We need to evacuate the town! Send out a warning!”

Carlos opened the door and looked outside. It was a bright and sunny day; no clouds in the sky could be seen. People were out walking dogs and creatures that might be considered dogs, and no one seemed particularly panicked or scared. A few on various porches and balconies were eyeing their radios with suspicion. Carlos could still make out the chanting, “Uh, I’m going to have to call this one a false alarm. If I’m wrong…well that’ll be for another day.” He shrugged off his lab coat and waved good bye to his co-worker. “I’ll be back in later tonight to write up the report, I have to go do something…it’s not anything dangerous so don’t be concerned. You can take the day off; in fact go tell everyone to take the day off.”

“Y-Yes Sir. Whatever you say.” 

“Mountains? More like nothings!” Cecil continued to shout at his microphone. It was very rare when Station Management actually allowed a whole day’s broadcast to be non-news related. He had gathered a few of the interns and other staff of the station to join with him in chanting. They all shrugged and agreed based on the shared belief that they had never seen a mountain and thus they must not be real. A few complied simply because they were getting paid and didn’t mind doing anything as long as they were on the clock. One employee admitted to actually liking the idea of mountains and found them pretty.

Cecil held up a hand to signal the others to be quiet and paused chanting briefly to note, “To family and loved ones of Adam the intern, I regret to inform you that he has been carried away to the isolation room. We probably won’t be hearing back from him. Sorry.” 

He signaled and the rest of the staff resumed their little chant. Until the door bust open and a very disheveled scientist came into view. “Carlos?” Cecil said in surprise. “Carlos we are live, you can’t be in here.” 

“Don’t care.” He moved briskly forward and unplugged the headset from the desk. “You’re coming with me, right now.” Carlos ignored Cecil’s confused protesting and grabbed an intern by the wrist, “You too. I’ll need backup.”

“Carlos, is there something wrong? Are we doing science?”

If Carlos had a free hand he would have pressed it firmly against his eyes in an attempt to gain control of his downward spiraling life. “No, Cecil, we are not doing science. I wouldn’t let you within ten feet of a beaker or Bunsen Burner.” He noted Cecil’s dejected sigh while he yanked the door open and left the other interns and staff confused and quiet. 

“Can you at least tell us where we’re going? Station Management is not going to like that I’ve left the building before the broadcast is over.”

He didn’t answer, instead he threw open the doors to his Jeep and shoved Cecil into the front seat and the intern to the back, “Watch any extra extremities I’m shutting the door.”

Cecil’s voice greeted him immediately upon his entry to the driver’s side, “You know we don’t have any extra limbs,” He fidgeted with his tie, “Uh…Carlos, where’s your hybrid?”

The engine roared to life and Carlos pulled out onto the street, swiftly leaving the radio tower behind him. “Remember last week when you reported on those giant sinkholes appearing and disappearing along Route Eight Hundred and Main Street?” He saw Cecil nod out of the corner of his eye, “Well my car unfortunately was swallowed by one. It’s at the shop being de-cursed apparently. This is a rental.”

“Oh my, Carlos you didn’t bring it to Bob’s Mechanics did you?”

“Yeah, why?” He flipped his blinker on and turned down Main Street, this time, without the threat of the ground opening up and swallowing them whole. 

“Oh that guy is the worst!” Cecil said, his voice becoming darker, like when he talks about Steve Carlsberg. “He always overcharges for everything, and he always does extra things without asking just so you pay him more!” He was getting more and more worked up, “Seriously? Two hundred dollars for a minor chant? P-lease! I could do that in my own garage for half the cost, oh and don’t even get me started on the time he changed intern Rick’s blood stone filter but didn’t tell him it was a foreign model and needed special parts. And an oil change? Come on! We all know oil is a conspiracy that big companies use to control the population.” He settled down a bit, “I’ll make sure to go down to Bob’s and pay him a visit. I can’t have my favorite outsider getting ripped off.” He concluded, “Next time take your car to Jim’s, he’s much more trustworthy.”

“I’ll…I’ll be sure to keep that in mind Cecil.”

A quiet voice from the backseat spoke up, “Uh, Scientist, Sir? Are we going past the city limits?” 

“Yes.” 

“Did you get the proper permission forms signed by City Council?” 

“No.” 

An audible gasp came from both the backseat and from beside Carlos. “Dear, sweet, sometimes naïve Carlos, we must go back.”

“Nope.” 

“Oh but City Council will be very displeased.”

“Oops.” He said not releasing his foot from the gas pedal. 

“Carlos!”

“Cecil this is for your own good!” Carlos snapped. “I’m showing you something. We’ll be back before they even notice. I’ll deal with City Council later.”

Cecil’s look of concern deepened, “This isn’t very smart…A scientist should be smarter than this.”

“We all do dumb things Cecil, even smart people.” 

“Can I uh, can I get out and walk back?” The intern in the back said weakly. “I don’t really want to risk City Council being mad at me…they might not be able to touch the Voice, but I’m just an intern…”

“No. You’ll be fine. You need to see this too, or well, someone that isn’t me needs to be backup.”

Still not sold on the idea Cecil decided to just let Carlos do his thing, he was a scientist, and he also had saved the town countless times since his arrival a few short months ago. So he made small talk, sometimes he was sure Carlos wasn’t listening, but hey, he talked. Talking was something he was good at, something he got paid to do. So he talked. It also made the hours of car travel seem to go by quicker.

Cecil was actually pretty worried, he had never been this far out from town before…he paused his train of thought for moment, he then decided that yes, this is the furthest from town he had ever been. On grounds that he had never really left town. Memories from Europe came to mind, but they seemed so outlandish sometimes that he regarded them as passing dreams on occasion. 

Soon Carlos parked the car and gestured out the window. They were in a small parking lot, a few other cars were parked around them and there was a sign with hiking trails dotting a map. “This,” Carlos pointed out the window, “this is a mountain.”

Cecil stared out at where Carlos was pointing. Sure enough, the desert flatness turned into a sharp peak that rose out of the earth. He pressed his face to the glass, leaning over Carlos, “Are you sure?” He asked, moving his head up and down and side to side. “It could be an illusion, a really strong illusion. I’m ranked an eleven on the sight strength scale, meaning that this has to be a powerful illusion to fool me. I’m impressed.”

“It’s not an illusion Cecil, it’s real.”

“I don’t know…can I touch it? Touching it will make it more real.”

Carlos sighed, “Yeah you can touch it,” he opened his door and a surprised yelp emanated from Cecil who was still leaning against it. “But we have to move quickly. I didn’t plan on being gone too long.”

The intern was also dragged from his curled up position in the back seat. “I don’t want to believe in something that isn’t real,” he protested, “I just want to go home.” Carlos had a firm grip on his wrist though, “I have a family,” he offered up weakly as he trudged alongside Carlos and Cecil.

“You’ll be fine, it’s just a mountain. It won’t eat you.”

“It might not eat him,” Cecil said, “but it does shake the foundations of everything we know to be true.”

Carlos mumbled under his breath, “Which isn’t a lot…” 

It was hot, very hot, and the lack of shade was becoming a bit of an annoyance to Carlos, why he bothered to wear his lab coat outside he’ll never know. He’ll also never understand what made him agree to station himself out in the middle of nowhere in some backwater town. The pay wasn’t even that good. But, something started to click and move into place when he saw the look of utter disbelief as a grown man touched a rock and gathered a finger full of sand. ‘Maybe there is a reason I’m here in Night Vale.’

“It’s not an illusion!” Cecil called over to Carlos. He ran over excited, “I see it, and when I went to touch it, my hand didn’t go through!” He grabbed Carlos and brought him over, “Isn’t this the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?” He asked a smile widening across his face. “Oh think of the science you could do Carlos! You are probably the first person to actually discover a mountain!”

That last statement was something the scientist was way too tired to address. Eventually he herded Cecil back into the Jeep and shut the door. The intern needed no coaxing and promptly buckled up. “Carlos did you see when I threw the rock and it actually went up the side of the mountain? I wonder how far up it goes? I thought they’d be higher…mountains, you know, back when I briefly debated their existence.” 

“Well that one was pretty tiny. In the Himalayas there’s a mountain so high people often die trying to climb to the top. It also happens to be the tallest in the world.” He couldn’t believe the way Cecil was cradling a rock in his hand, one he took from the mountain, so it could sit on his desk and remind him it was real. He asked several times if it was ok to take the rock, specifically if the mountain would get angry and want it back. “There are mountains all over Cecil; this one was just the closest to Night Vale.” 

And close wasn’t close enough, the little adventure took almost five hours round trip. The night sky was already fully draped over the town when they got back to the station.

“You know…it could have been just one mountain Carlos, and the others are all illusions…” 

“Yeah, yeah, you’re just going to have to trust me on this Cecil.” He noticed the intern scurry away as soon as the car was in park. 

Cecil got out and faced Carlos, “Hey, thanks for showing me that today, it was really cool…I sorta feel like a fool though…I’m going to have to make a correction on tomorrows news broadcast. And for what it’s worth, I’m glad City Council didn’t haul you away with all the other mountain believers.” 

‘So that’s where the three missing from my team went…’ He scratched his head, “Yeah, no, it was no big deal. I just couldn’t listen to you make a fool of yourself anymore. I am also glad I didn’t get hauled away to wherever they took those people, the abandoned mine shaft, right?”

“No, no, this time it was the detention center at the City Council building. I don’t think we’ll be seeing them again…my bad.” He apologized, but Carlos didn’t really sense any weight behind it. “Anyways,” he continued, his voice getting higher and a considerable amount peppier, “So, when the mountain wasn’t looking, I grabbed this!” He pulled out another stone, this one was rounder, and smoother, Carlos thought it was probably old volcanic rock worn down by the wind and sand. “I want you to have it, so you won’t forget this really awesome day.” He placed the stone in Carlos’s hand. It was a small, heavy weight that rested in his palm. “Thank you again, beautiful Carlos.”

“Cecil it was really nothing…”

There was an inhuman screeching coming from the station and a few panicked interns came running out. “Mr. Baldwin!” They shouted. “Mr. Baldwin! It’s Station Management, they seem to be very displeased! They keep shooting out letters faster than we can read them.” 

With a look of grave concern he turned from Carlos, to the tower, back to Carlos. “I’m really sorry to cut this short, perfect Carlos, but I uh…I should go take care of this. I don’t want to lose another intern to Management. You know how it is…” 

Carlos nodded and watched the reporter run into the building, still clutching his own little stone. Carlos looked down at the one in his hand and felt his face get hot, though it was probably due to the swift winds that picked up and the sudden appearance of the sun in the middle of the night. Sighing he went to the back of the rental car and pulled out his video camera. “February twenty eighth, two thousand thirteen, the time is twenty one hours. Night fell two hours early today, only to be interrupted by the sun making a sudden appearance in the sky as seen here. I don’t yet know what this means and so far this is the only documented case of the sun re-rising and … nope… there it goes, back down. This town, I swear…” He shut the camera off and loaded his things.

His mind briefly wandered to Cecil as another guttural howl emanated from the community radio building, but he figured that Cecil knew what he was doing, and if he tried to go in there he’d probably end up like that poor intern who was absorbed. 

Instead he turned the vehicle on and headed back to his lab. He still had that report on the radiation levels to finish. When he arrived, he placed the cool stone on his desk, right next to the radio.


End file.
